The Dragon War
by lightningwizard
Summary: When the world is plunged into a war with dragons at the head front, what can a lone kid and his friends do to save it.
1. The Coming of the Child

Disclaimer: I don't own dungeons & dragons, just the characters that i make up. And i don't own Faerun.

A/N: This is my first fic. It will take me a while to get the next chapter up unless I have some real motivation to work harder on it (hint hint - review damit). P.S. I didn't take the time to proofread so let me know if it's that bad.

The Dragon War

Prologue

There was a time when the mighty dragons of the world were at war, battles being fought everywhere. A time when it was not so rare a sight to see two dragons dueling in the skies; fire, lightning, acid, and freezing air being spewed forth at enemy dragons. Thus this time period was aptly named the dragon wars.

People would often watch the spectacle of the dragons fighting each other from a distance, so as to not be accidentally hit by the spells or bodies of the dead dragon falling in signal of it's defeat. And you were in for a treat if you saw any more then three dragons fighting at a time. The largest number ever seen in one place was ten, at the climax of the war between the good and evil races of dragons.

Yes, just like in the race of humans, and all other races for that matter, there are good and evil dragons. The only thing is that no one knows which ones are good and which ones are evil. Before the war no one ever thought of asking a dragon if he or she was good or evil, everyone just assumed all dragons were evil from the children stories. You know the ones, where a brave adventurer wandered into a dragons' lair in search of gold and other treasures and was killed by the dragon, his belongings being added to the dragons' pile of treasure.

In most stories you hear about a great red dragon, supposedly the mightiest of all the types of dragons, yet occasionally you hear about a black or white dragon. But now that the war is over it has been discovered that there is a total of ten different types of dragons. In all there are red, black, copper, bronze, white, green, gold, brass, blue, and silver. It has also been discovered which types are good and which types are evil, but I will let you figure that out for yourself, and hopefully by the end of my story you will be able to answer that question – which are good and which are evil.

The story I am going to tell you will take place in the middle of the war between dragons, and is about how a child is born with certain gifts that could change the tide of this war.

Chapter 1 The coming of the child

Within the dangerous Arcane Forest dwelled a human couple. Eldon, the male of the couple, was a ranger that helped people get safely through the forest, and Diesa, the female of the couple, was a wizard of decent stature who whenever able to helped her husband protecting people on their journey through the forest.

The Arcane Forest was named so because it was said that the trees themselves were made of arcane magic. In fact to a wizard, or anyone that was able to feel any kind of magic, walking through the arcane forest felt almost electrifying.

Eldon and Diesa had made a house out of tree, rather large in diameter, within the center of the forest when they first came here. Diesa had used her magic to carve out the inside of the tree to make it hollow, while Eldon made the top half of their house in the form of a tree house. Diesa had also used a special spell she had learned to make the inside of the tree the size of a decent size three room house. And within a few weeks of work they had built themselves a nice house.

After a few years of living in the Arcane Forest and saving up some money from helping travelers through the dangerous wood they both decided that they wanted to have a child. Within the next year Diesa had give birth to a baby boy and they named him Thamior. Almost right after Thamior was born a golden finch flew up to Eldon and perched on his shoulder. "You know about the gifts granted to one born in the Arcane Forest Right?" the finch said to Eldon in peeping sounds knowing that Eldon would be able to understand him because he was a ranger.

"No, we are not aware of this. Please tell us," Eldon said back to the bird in the same peeping sounds.

"Well, as I'm sure you know this forest was created by arcane magic. The part that you probably don't know of is that the person who created this forest, a very powerful elven wizard, is still alive after many centuries since the forest was first created. And he has a message that he wishes to give to you in person, so if you would be so kind as to the deepest part of the forest located farther back from here. And he asks that you bring the young child," the finch finished telling the tale to Eldon and was out of breath.

While the finch caught his breath Eldon related the tale to his wife. "Of course we'll go to see this wizard," Diesa said to Eldon as much as to the finch. Diesa even as tired as she must be after giving birth was not one to miss the chance to meet a new wizard, always looking for new things to learn.

The finch the preceded to give them more specific directions and to write them down as he told them so that they would have it in the future.

OoOoOoOo

So it was with these direction in hand that Eldon and Diesa left their house and headed toward the place described by the finch. They packed some supplies but not really needing much they didn't overdue it, since Eldon could easily live off the land and Diesa could use her spells to provide fresh drinking water.

After a few days of traveling through the forest Eldon and Diesa came to the spot they were looking for, it was a dark grove within the deepest and darkest part of the forest. Another clue that this was the right place was that there was a small wooden shack built in the center of the grove.

As they approached the door to the shack the sensation Diesa got whenever she was around a large amount of arcane magic intensified tenfold. So she knew that what the finch had told them about the wizard being very powerful was very true.

As they reached the door to the shack Eldon went to knock on the door but before his hand could reach the door a voice from inside called, "Enter."

With a side ways glance at his wife for a reassuring nod Eldon opened the door and stepped in. The inside of the shack was made up of one room, but it looked as if it could use another room or two due to the piles upon piles of tomes and scrolls. Even with the bookshelves located all around the room there were still way too many tomes and scrolls. The wizard himself was sitting behind the one piece of furniture that wasn't a bookshelf, a large desk with a chair, looking through one of the largest tomes in the room.

The thing that puzzled Eldon and Diesa both, even if they didn't know that they should the puzzlement, was way didn't the wizard just use his magic to make his house appear bigger when inside.

"Greetings, I am Nexal the wizard that created this forest more than a three centuries ago," the wizard said as he looked up from his book and for the first time Eldon and Diesa could see the pointed ears that marked him as an elf.

"But that would make you at least four hundred years old!" Diesa said.

"Actually, it should be a bit closer to four hundred and fifty, I think, you tend to lose track of time when you have been in the same place for three hundred years," Nexal replied.

"But, I've never heard of an elf being much more than four hundred years old, and I've was raised by elves," Diesa said.

"And why have you been in this forest for three hundred years, that's an awfully long time to be in one place," Eldon added.

"First I'll answer your question," Nexal said pointing to Eldon, "I've been here so long because when I created this forest the gods feared its power, so they imprisoned me within the forest. And if I try to even take one step out of this forest my body is engulfed in pain. And with my imprisonment came eternal life to ensure that I would always be able to protect the forest and keep its powers in check, until such a time as when the gods see fit for someone to succeed me."

"I'm sure not every god would fear this forest?" Diesa pointed out.

"You're right, all of them except my own god, Mystra," Nexal said.

"I figured that Mystra wouldn't oppose or fear anything like this, after all she is the goddess of magic," Diesa replied talking fondly about her own goddess.

"What are these powers of the forest that you keep talking about?' Eldon asked.

"Well, whenever a child is born within the forest a great gift is bestowed upon him or her, and in your case him I can see," Nexal said looking at Thamior. Then he added, "As you son grows up you will find that he will have a certain affinity with magic, he will still have to work hard to perfect it but not quite as hard as any other normal person. This is the gift of the Arcane Forest, and that is also why it is named that not just because it was made from arcane magic."

"Well that makes some sense," Eldon said merely to say something.

"There's more to the powers thing, this affinity with magic will only be a hazy sixth sense. It will not be truly developed until Thamior reaches the age of eighteen, at which time he must return here so that he can fully awaken the gift of the forest," Nexal said.

"Ok then, we'll return here when Thamior is eighteen," Diesa said with closure.

"There is one more thing you ought to know before you leave here," Nexal said pausing to set the mood for the coming news before he continued, "As I'm sure you have heard, from a passing traveler, a mighty war between the races dragons has recently begun."

"Yea, so we've heard, but I don't understand what this has to do with coming back here in eighteen years," Eldon said cutting Nexal off.

"Well, I fear that this war will soon reach this forest. Though I do not fear for the safety of the forest itself, for I know that this forest cannot be destroyed not even by fire, I fear instead for the safety of you and Thamior. I believe that Thamior may play a major role in this war, if he lives long enough to develop his gift. So I must ask you, please will you protect him with your lives? Not just as a parent but for all of Faerûn. For I also fear that there is more to this war than what is know," Nexal continued bringing surprised looks from Eldon and Diesa.

"We would protect our son with more than just our lives. We would willing give our souls to protect our only child, gifted or not," Eldon and Diesa said in almost complete unison.

"Good, I am glad to hear it. Now I'm afraid that I have taken up too much of your time, so I will allow you to leave now. But you must take this scroll with you. It details the strengths and weaknesses of the trees within this forest," Nexal said handing a scroll to Eldon.

"We thank you, Nexal, for your kindness, and for parting upon us this knowledge. We will spend what time we can teaching our son well, and remaining on guard for any danger," Diesa said.

"Yes thank you, we will prepare for the time when the war reaches us. And Thamior will return here when he is eighteen, we will make sure that, if nothing else, we tell that to our son," Eldon added.

"Well then, if there is nothing else you need I have some work I have to get back to. Three hundred years in this place and to think that I still have work to do. I guess a wizard's job is never done; we do not stop seeking knowledge until we die," Nexal said in a tone of finality.

"Good-bye," Eldon and Diesa called back as they walked out the door with their son Thamior.

* * *

And there it is, the first chapter of my first fic. Please read and review.


	2. The Attack

Disclaimer: I made a mistake in my last disclaimer I actually don' t own the world that this fic takes place in, which is Faerun and the Forgotten Realms Setting, but I did add a few new places that are my own. Other than those places and the characters that I made up I don't own anything from D&D.

Sephirothxx-Thanks for the review Andy, and as you can see I did keep writing so here is the next chapter.

Chapter 2

The Attack

It has been eight years since Eldon and Diesa had seen Nexal and that made Thamior eight years old. That meant that Eldon and Diesa had taught him many things within those eight years. They had also spent a great amount of time studying that scroll that Nexal gave them.

They found out that no tree in the Arcane Forest could be burned or chopped down, for they were protected by spells of fire protection and well as a spell that made them as hard as metal. But this also meant that if some other wizard or cleric were to come into this forest and cast a spell that made the trees vulnerable to fire or a spell that canceled the other spell the trees would be more or less just like a normal tree.

They also noticed that Thamior did in fact have some kind of affinity with magic. He wasn't able to cast very many spells but the spells that he could cast he learned quickly and could cast them better then some other wizards.

Eldon and Diesa had devoted a lot of time to teaching Thamior and preparing him for what they knew was to come. Most of Thamior's time was spent with his mother learning the ways of magic and a few spells, but the was some time spent with his father learning some hand to hand combat skills. Thamior quickly developed some skill with the staff, and his father recently presented him with his own quarterstaff made of maple.

One day as Eldon was making his rounds through the forest a very excited squirrel came up to him, "Orcs and goblins in the forest!" the squirrel chattered excitedly, almost too fast for Eldon to catch what was being said.

"Where are they? How many are there?" Eldon asked the squirrel.

"They just entered from the northern edge of the forest. There were a lot of them, too many for me to count. And they were heading for the center of the forest," the squirrel said this time a little bit more calmly.

Since a squirrel couldn't count very high this didn't help much, but Eldon knew that the squirrel wouldn't get this excited over a couple of orcs and goblins. "Thank you my good friend. I will see to the forests defenses immediately," Eldon said as he quickly ran the opposite way from the invaders, toward his house.

"What's the matter?" Diesa asked her husband when she saw him running back to the house.

"There are orcs and goblins in the forest, and I think they're heading this way," Eldon replied.

Diesa reacted quicker than you would have expected from someone who was just told that her home was being invaded. She took Thamior into the tree and to the library, which was inside the tree not up in the tree house part. She stopped at a large painting of a tree and said, "_Kazakh._" And the canvas disappeared leaving a door into a dark chamber. "This is my own chamber that I created when we first made this house, only those that know the password may enter. Remember the word well so that you can get back out of here."

"But where are you and daddy going?" Thamior asked.

"The forest is under attack," his mother replied.

"But I wanna fight too," Thamior protested.

"We promised someone very important that if this forest was attacked that you would live," Thamior's mom said then she added, "That is why you must stay in here for a couple of nights. I will disguise this tree to look like all the rest and make a different tree far away from here look like our house. But if they see through that there will be all sorts of wards around the real house. And if they somehow manage to get through that then you will be safe in these chambers, for I will lock them so that you and only you may enter and leave them."

"Fine I never get to do anything fun," Thamior wined. "How long do I have to stay in here anyway," he added in a more regular tone.

"Stay here for only five hours, that should give you plenty of time to gather your things and for us to distract them long enough. On the table you will find a letter, you must follow the directions on the letter and go to the detailed place when you are eighteen and no sooner. You will also find my spell book; it is yours along with anything else in here. And one more thing all of your belongings have been put in a closet over there," Diesa said as she pointed to a nearby closet.

At that moment Eldon walked into the room, "Come on dear, we don't have much time left," he said to his wife before turning to his son and adding, "When you leave here you must never come back to this tree. Instead find a cave or something and make that your home for now, then go to the house in the letter when you are old enough. Learn all that you can within that time limit."

"Ok," Thamior said trying to sound grown up.

When he finished his parents said goodbye and gave him a hug, and with that they were gone the door returning to the painting from the outside and just the back of the canvas from the inside sending the chamber into darkness again. So with a few hand gestures and a simple triggering word Thamior cast a simple light spell that he was taught and set about looking through his mother's secret chamber.

OoOoOoOo

Eldon ran through the forest with his longbow, a quiver of arrows, and his long sword in case they got too close. While Diesa ran with nothing but a pouch of spell components in case she had to use some of her more complex spells, which she thought very likely and her quarterstaff.

They stopped running long enough for Eldon to ask a nearby bird to see how much farther away the orcs and goblins were.

"They're up ahead a little bit. Not much farther from here. And it looks like they are making camp, guess they don't want to travel in the dark," the bird replied before it flew off into the distance.

"Perfect for us," Eldon said turning toward his wife with the deadly gleam in his eyes that he only got before a battle. "Do you have any spells that will allow us to see in the dark," he added already forming a plan in his head.

"Yea, hold on," Diesa said as she made some familiar gestures and softly spoke the command word so that none would over hear her.

As the spells affect took place all colors started to fade into nothing but black and white, but Eldon and Diesa found that they could see as normally as if it were in color. And their sight was much better suited for the darkness now.

"Alright hears the plan, is there any what you can damper their vision somehow?" Eldon asked Diesa.

"Will some fog work?" she asked back.

"Yea, as long as we can see them from out here," Eldon said.

"We should be able to see into the fog but wont last very long and it won't be very dense cause there isn't much water vapor in the air tonight." Diesa said as she noticed how dry the air had been for the past couple of days.

"That's fine. Next I'll pepper them with arrows until the fog disappears, while you bombard them with spells; use anything that can kill. Once the fog wears away I'll go in with my sword and you continue to use as many spells as you have left. If you need to take what you can with your staff, though I'm sure they'll have some archers to pick you off so keep that in mind," Eldon said laying out his newly formed plan.

"Sounds like a pretty good plan for something you just made up on the spot," Diesa said noting her husband's uncanny ability to form a good plan on the fly. The she added, "You should use your bow from over here I'll teleport to their flank so we can confuse them some more."

"Alright, I'll send a bird to you when I'm ready for you to cast the fog spell," Eldon said as waved goodbye to his wife for she had already cast the teleport spell that would take her to the groups flank.

OoOoOoOo

Diesa took care to make sure that she cast the spell so that she would appear far enough away from the group that they wouldn't notice her. As she arrived at her destination she started to look for the best vantage point from which she could cast her spells.

She cast a spell of invisibility on herself so that she wouldn't be seen then she cast one on her husband and sent a message to his mind letting him know that he was invisible. Diesa heard him silently thank her while she was still connected to his mind, but her spell ended abruptly cutting off the end of the statement. She found a good place where she could easily see the camp, and finally being able to see the numbers her and her husband were up against. There were so many, more than the eye could see. But she didn't concern herself with numbers for she knew that she would die for a greater cause, so her son could live.

After she had finished gawking at the number of foes she prepared the fog spell and left it on the tip of her tongue until the bird was sent to her.

OoOoOoOo

Eldon felt the tingling sensation that usually accompanied a spell being cast on him, then he heard the message in his heard from his wife and he thanked her.

He made his way closer to the camp so that he could easily shoot at them with his bow. He found his spot and looked out over the camp, sure it went on farther than he could see but he had long ago learned not to concern himself with the numbers.

Eldon took his bow off his shoulder and then took the arrows out of his quiver and stuck them in the ground so that he had easier access to them.

When he was ready he called a nearby bird to him and sent the bird to his wife. Then he set the first arrow to his bowstring and waited for the fog.

OoOoOoOo

As soon as the bird landed on her shoulder Diesa spoke the word that would send an obscuring fog into the enemies midst.

The fog started from the center of the group and worked its way to the edges, sending the orcs and goblins into a state of panic and confusion. The situation only got more confusing for them as arrow after arrow flew into their ranks, every one reaching its mark and killing him.

As soon as the fog spell was off her lips Diesa instantly started to cast another one. After a few gestures and a slightly longer incantation a bolt of lightning burst from Diesa's fingertips. She purposely chose an orc that wasn't on the edge of camp so that the bolt would head straight for him killing any in it's path. As it turned out the lightning bolt had killed six goblins and two orcs.

As their ranks thinned Diesa could see the arrows flying into the camp and knew that her husband was still alive. And with this knowledge she cast her next spell, sending three blue missiles of raw magical energy at three unsuspecting foes. As the missiles killed their targets the fog spell ended and leader of the group, a giant orc, managed to restore some order within the group and organize them.

OoOoOoOo

Eldon was down to his last two arrows, meaning that he had used twenty-three, each killing someone before the fog spell wore off. Sticking to the plan he fired off the last two arrows and dropped his bow on the ground, replacing it with his long sword.

Without the fog to hide him and the invisibility spell having worn off when he fired his first arrow the orcs and goblins quickly noticed him and drew rusted swords. They charged him as he charged them.

He reached them with the point of his long sword down. As soon as someone was foolish enough to come close to him he slashed upward, right through the unfortunate fool's armor, spilling his innards onto the ground. He continued to slash and stab at all of them, suffering only minor cuts here or there. But with the rusted blades the cuts hurt more than they should have.

The enemies' ranks were thinned greatly in a fairly short amount of time. Eldon could see flashes of light out of the corner of his eye letting him know that his wife was still alive, and that each flash brought at least another orc or goblin to his death. His happy thoughts were dimmed quickly, as soon as the giant orc leader of the group stepped up. He was clad in scale mail unlike the leather of his subordinates and Eldon knew that he would not be able to cut through this ones armor.

The orc leader said something in it's own guttural language that many would not have been able to understand but Eldon was a ranger who knew many different languages, "Why do you attack us, we have done nothing to you."

"You have invaded our home that is reason enough for us to attack you. Why are you here anyway?" Eldon replied.

"My master knows of a child in these woods with a special gift, and he believes that gift could hinder his plans so he sent this strike force to take care of the child," the orc said.

"That is my own son whom you are talking about, and that gives me another reason to kill you. Though I should warn you that if you do manage to kill me you will never find my son," Eldon said as he ran forward his sword held up high to slash across the orc's face, or to block any blow that might come from the giant leader. Even with the leaders abnormally large size Eldon was still quite a bit taller than him.

The orc leader drew an axe with a huge head but a small handle from his back, and attempted to slash Eldon across his chest.

But Eldon, having the faster weapon, was able to get his sword over in time to block the blow. As he felt his bled stop the axe he slid it up along the handle of the axe so it was above his head, then he stabbed downward and his sword went into the orc in the arm right below his protective armor, and was stopped by the orc's bone in his arm.

The orc howled in pain but he quickly recovered after the blade was yanked out of his arm. He hefted his axe so that he could cleave Eldon in two. He swung down with all his might, and even though Eldon managed to stop the brunt of the blow, though his arms were numbed from the force of it. And to make matters worse the orc leader pulled his axe back a little bit so that when Eldon tried to move his blade to attack back he found that it was caught between the curve of the axe blade and the handle.

"Not so tough now are ye," the axe wielding orc sneered. "Attack!" he shouted at everyone nearby.

Three orcs rushed in, two with swords and the other with an axe like its leader. Eldon felt the searing pain as two swords dug deep into each of his thighs. He saw the axe coming straight for his head and he ducked letting go of his stuck sword in the process.

As he ducked he spun and stuck his leg out tripping one of the sword wielders. The stupid sword wielder dropped his sword, and Eldon picked it up and stabbed the idiot in the heart killing him instantly.

As this happened the crowd of orcs and goblins merely stood by and watched the fight. With them distracted magic missiles continued to bombard them from the other side of their camp, though most didn't even know it.

Eldon was crouched down trying to free his newly acquired sword from its former wielders heart when suddenly pain erupted from his entire body, and when he tried to release his grip on the sword he found that he couldn't move his fingers. Though he would never know it, for he couldn't even turn his head, the orc leader had stuck his axe in Eldon's spine.

The orc leader yanked his axe out of Eldon's back, sending even more pain though Eldon's body. The realization that he had been paralyzed dawned on him just before the orc leader's axe came down on his neck with such a force that his head was lopped off entirely.

With Eldon dead the warning ward that Diesa had placed on his body, to let her know when he was dead was activated sending a single spark of light up into the air.

OoOoOoOo

Diesa in mid spell when she saw the sparkle of light go up into the air. Her heart skipped a beat as it dawned on her that her husband was dead, and she lost her concentration on the spell and lost it.

Knowing that she had just wasted a spell Diesa silently cursed herself, and knowing that her husband was dead sent a wild flare in her eyes and she cracked becoming completely reckless.

Diesa decided it was time to use the secret art she had been perfecting over the years, a special technique that allowed her to cast a spell to the point where all that was left was the triggering word and then she would leave it and cast another one and then say the two triggering words one right after the other. She knew that it would take a while to do it, and suspected that the orcs and goblins would have bows and crossbows trained on her in a matter of moments so she decided to cast a spell called wind wall that would deflect the arrows.

She went through the movements and gestures of the spell and when she finished it she could hear a faint wind surrounding her, and she immediately fell back into her casting state as she went through the simple of the two spells and spoke the incantation leaving out the last word. Then she hastily started the next spell, a much more complicated one that would take slightly longer. As she started it she could hear the wind pick up speed as it stopped an arrow and then quieted again. In less then a second arrows came in at Diesa in a steady stream so that the wind wall didn't get the chance to quiet again.

The syllables for the second spell came out rather quickly and sound almost like she was muttering to herself. Just as her wind wall spell failed she spoke the final two words two unleash her wrath upon the camp.

An arrow struck her in the shoulder but it didn't matter anymore since she had used the strongest and most destructive spell combo she could think of and was completely wiped out to the point where she couldn't even move a muscle.

More arrows struck her as her spell took its shape. Her first spell, another lightning bolt was sent through the group, leaving behind a line a death. But then came the second spell, a giant fireball, continued to grow in size as the lightning bolt finished its destruction. Then it soared into the group sending smoke and the smell of burning flesh into the night wind. When the dense smoke had cleared all that was left was a circle of dead bodies and smoldering tents with orcs and goblins that were lucky enough to avoid the spell around the circles edge.

With all of her energy drained Diesa was left standing there dumbfounded, she couldn't even fall down, so she made for an excellent target for the remaining orcs and goblins.

Arrow after arrow pierced her thin clothing endlessly. And when they ceased to come anymore you wouldn't have been able to tell that it was a human standing there, dead on the spot, for Diesa looked like a giant pincushion.

"Hurry up you maggots, we've got no reason to stay here so let's get our business in this forest done with," the orc leaded shouted to the troops under his command, and not being able to wait until they were done and out of this forest. But also dreading having to tell his master how he lost almost half of his troop to two humans.

OoOoOoOo 

Nexal sat in a soft, cushiony chair, in his little shack; watching the magnificent performance Eldon and Diesa were giving in the depths of a circular mirror lying on his desk.

"I didn't think that they were going to do so well and provide such an excellent distraction," he said to a gray owl that was perched on Nexal's shoulder also watching the events in the mirror. "Too bad I wont be able to ask Diesa to teach me that spell combo thing, eh Graycloak," he added still thinking about learning new things after such a very long time.

Graycloak sighed and said, "Maybe young Thamior will find the secret to that technique in one of his mother's books, or just developed something similar to it and then you can ask him when he gets here in ten years."

Most would have been surprised that Nexal was talking to the owl and the owl talking back to him, but Nexal was not for the magic of the forest also affected the animals in strange ways. For example the already intelligent owl had developed even more intelligence and was now able to converse and understand all different races.

"Right you are Graycloak," Nexal said as he waved his hand over the mirror and the scene of Diesa's body full of arrows disappeared and an image of a young boy appeared.

OoOoOoOo

(Before the fight with the orcs even began)

As he cast the light spell to illuminate the chambers he gazed around and found that he could not see a single spot of wall due to all the bookshelves lining the room, each one filled with books of all sorts. And in one spot there was a cabinet instead of a bookshelf, and inside the cabinet Thamior found his meager amount of belongings neatly arranged. And in the center of the room there was a single desk with a comfy chair to sit in.

He walked to the cabinet and looked at his belongings deciding what he would take with him when he left in a little while. He instantly grabbed the quarterstaff that his father had made for him from a maple tree outside the forest. He started to grab his spell book with the few spells he had learned from his mother, but then he remembered what his mother said about leaving her spellbook for his. He decided that he would take both of them and transfer the spells he learned from his mother's book into his own to keep track of his progress. Then he grabbed his backpack and put a change of clothes in it as well as his spellbook, he also found a bedroll with his belongings that didn't really belong to him but knew that he would need it so he strapped it to the bottom of his backpack. And left the rest of his belongings deeming them unnecessary to bring with him.

He went to the desk and put the letter in his mother's spellbook and put that into his backpack as well. He also noticed a small bag of coins on the table as well and took them too. As he looked through the drawers of the desk he found a belt with a ton of small pockets, knowing right away that it was his mother's spare belt that she would use to keep her spell components. It was the same belt that he used when he was practicing his own magic with his mother, so he checked the pockets and found the all full of different components and put it safely into his backpack as well. In another drawer he found a ring with a strange looking gem in the center and added it to the growing stockpile in his backpack.

He checked all the bookshelves and found mostly stories, his mother loved to read, but he didn't think they would be worth taking with him, so he continued looking across the many shelves. Until he found something truly interesting, the series of three books that he knew his mother used to write her research in. He could have spotted those threes books anywhere they were some of the only books he had ever seen that had bright white covers that he thought impractical because they would easily get dirty. But nevertheless he took them anyway

Then he went back to the desk and took some writing materials, an inkpen, a couple vials of black ink, and a few pieces of parchment and carefully put them into his backpack with the rest of his things.

After Thamior felt that he had everything that he would probably need and shut his backpack and checked a giant clock that was in a corner almost hidden by the bookshelves that flanked it. He saw that it had been just about five hours, so he put his backpack on his back and took his quarterstaff in hand.

He walked up to the canvas back of the painting and spoke the opening word, "Kazakh." And the canvas gave way to the doorway that he had entered from.

After Thamior was through the painting he spoke the word again and the painting returned back to normal. He thought about checking the rest of the house from more things to take but his backpack was already full and he figured that he could just travel to the town that wasn't too far from the forest if he really needed something.

And on that note he walked out of the library and through the halls of the magically enhanced tree trunk, still marveling at the fact that his mother's magic had made the inside of this tree trunk the size of a small house on the inside but still appear normal on the outside.

Thamior exited the concealed door that lead in and out of the tree and took one last look at his home before he turned and ran off through the forest to a place that his father had once showed he on one of their many walks through the forest.

After running, and sometimes walking, for close to an hour Thamior finally came to the place he was looking for, and after getting lost more then once in the now dark woods. Even with the rock that he held glowing from another light spell that he cast upon it the forest was still extremely dark.

Somewhere not very far from the from the dark corner of the forest where Nexal lived Thamior came upon one of his favorite places in the whole forest that he knew no one would be able to find him in. The spot was a large clearing with a small pond in the center that had a river flowing off the one side of it and on the opposite side of the river there was a cliff that had a decent sized cave in it.

Thamior walked into the cave and found it was just as he remembered it, stalagmites growing up from the floor, which meant that there must be some water source up above the cliff. The cave went back a good fourteen or so feet and was maybe around ten feet wide. He walked to the back placing the glowing rock on the floor as he took his backpack off laid it next to the rock, and then he took the two spellbooks and his mother's research books out and put them in a little cubby made in the back of the cave to keep them dry. Thamior also put the belt and the ring in the cubby as well as the pouch of coins, and then he undid the bindings that were holding his bedroll to his backpack.

Thamior unrolled his bedroll and lay down inside of it to catch at least a few hours of sleep. He used his backpack as a pillow and was asleep as soon as his head hit it.

OoOoOoOo

"It looks like you were right as usual Graycloak. Thamior wouldn't take those three heavy books if they weren't important, and I don't think they were all spellbooks," Nexal said to the owl as he waved his hand over the mirror again and the image faded leaving nothing but the mirror's smooth surface.

"We'll just have to wait and see," Graycloak said exhibiting his unusual amount of patience.

"That we will my friend," Nexal said with some delight at his very intelligent friend, but then added in a sadder tone, "It's too bad I couldn't help Eldon and Diesa, I really liked them."

"You know that the gods would have punished you for not doing what they said, and they specifically said that your only ask was to make sure the forest didn't fall into the wrong hands, they didn't say anything about protecting the child. And they would not be happy if they found out that you left your mirror unattended to help this child, no matter how important he is," Graycloak replied his amber eyes resembling pools of intelligence to Nexal as he stared into them.

* * *

And there you have it folks, chapter 2. I just started chapter 3 so it will take a little while to get up since school takes up most of my time, but I'll do my best. Please read and review, thanks. 


	3. The Trials Begin

Disclaimer: Sadly I still don't own dungeons & dragons, though it would be cool if I did.

Sephirothxx - Thanks for continuing to review. And sorry this chapter took too long, but I got it up by Sunday like I told you I would.

Anbu713 - Took you long enough. You know I'm too lazy to completly spell check the entire chapter, but I did catch and fix a few mistakes in this one. What's wrong with gods talking to an elf, it's just different but it could still happen, think of all the times Mystra talks to Elminster. The dialouge gets a bit more natural towards the end of this chapter, I'm still working on that part though.

Enough of this on to Chapter 3!

* * *

Chapter 3

The Trials Begin

Thamior sat in the cave he was now using as a home, and had been using as a home for the past ten years, looking through his spellbook. Thamior was still seventeen, though his birthday was in two days. He had read the letter the day after he left his home and his parents had died, and he remembered well what his mother had said to him before she left with his father to fight the orcs and goblins. "Go to the place detailed in the letter when you are eighteen and no sooner," her voice rang clearly in his head even after ten years.

In the ten years of solitude he had dedicated himself almost fully to learning the spells in his mother's spellbook, and he was now able to cast all of them and a few that weren't in her spellbook. Thus he had attained the same level of spell casting as his mother had before her death. He had gone to a town that was located just a few miles from the forest and used his magic to do simple tasks for some of the villagers and in return they paid him. And with that gold Thamior bought books that contained some of the older and forgotten spells in Faerûn. He also used some of the gold to have one of the other wizards in the town, which was called Miet, to teach him some of the more complicated spells that he couldn't learn on his own. The town and the forest were located to the south of the mighty Anauroch desert, in the kingdom of Cormyr.

He also asked the wizard who helped him learn new spells and perfect old ones to tell him what the ring, that he found in the drawer of his mother's desk, did because he knew that it had to be magical.

"This is indeed a magical ring. You see the black opal suggests that it has to deal with darkness, and after further study it was revealed that the ring granted the wearer permanent darkvision," the wizard had said after Thamior returned to retrieve the ring which he had left in the wizards care overnight.

The ring never left Thamior's finger once he knew what it did, and after wearing it for a while he found that he could activate and deactivate the ability whenever he wanted the darkvision on or off.

Other then that Thamior rarely left the cave, preferring the solitude with which he could practice his spell without any interruptions. Also he never left the cave when he was reading his mother's research books, so that no one else would be able to learn the secrets that his mother had guarded. And the majority of the pages in the books were used to completely describe her secret spell combo technique, and how she had perfected it.

And with only two days left until he had to go to this shack and do who knows what, he was taking extra time to prepare himself for the worst.

OoOoOoOo

It was time. Two days of preparing for today had finally passed and Thamior was eighteen years old. And today he would follow the directions in the letter and go to the shack deep within the forest.

He was certain that he would need some spells in one way or another for this so before he left his cave he sat down a looked over his spellbook, and picking out the spells that would be most useful. He would have picked them all but he could not memorize that many spells at one time so he chose some of the more useful spells or the ones that he preferred to use and was thus better with them than with others.

Once he was finished preparing his spells he put the spell component belt around his waist, and grabbed his quarterstaff; which he had been practicing with whenever he wasn't practicing his spell casting. He also checked his finger just to be certain that he had his ring. Thamior grabbed the letter to make sure that he wouldn't get lost and was about to step out of the cave when he remembered some other useful items that might come in handy on this trip. So he went back to the cubby in the very back of the cave and took a few scrolls, each with a spell written on it, that he had scribed over the years and then left the cave.

Once outside in the bright daylight Thamior looked over the letter and realized that the directions used his old house as a starting point, but he decided that he shouldn't go back to that place. He instead picked one of the landmarks out of the letter that he knew very well from his many travels through the forest and used it as the starting point to the shack in place of the tree that was once his home.

On his way through the forest he saw many birds and other animals that he recognized, and wished at that time more than any other time that he had his father's ability to speak to the animals. He didn't know of course that due to some of the side affects from living in the Arcane Forest for so long many of the animals could speak common, they just chose not to so as to not draw unwanted attention to themselves.

He ambled on absentmindedly following the directions in the letter, but putting most of his attention to admiring the beauty of this forest. When suddenly he walked unknowingly into a clearing and didn't realize it until he noticed that there sun was significantly brighter here and the lack of trees on every side of him. When he took the time to look around the clearing he saw the shack in the center and checked the letter to make sure it was the right place, 'Yep, this is the place,' Thamior thought to himself as he walked to the door.

'Wonder what's inside,' he thought to himself again as he went to knock on the door.

But before his hand made contact with the wooden door a voice from inside the shack said, "Enter."

Thamior opened the door and looked instantly upon the wizard sitting in his comfy chair just as he waved his hand over the mirror dispelling the image of Thamior that he could now look upon.

"Ah, a scrying device, that explains it," Thamior said looking at the mirror.

"Yes, it allows me to see all within the confines of the forest," the wizard replied as Thamior carefully scrutinized the entire shack with a glance.

In that one glance Thamior took in the bookshelves that coated every inch of each wall, the piles of tomes and scrolls scattered across the room, and the lone desk with the wizard behind it. He even noticed the gray owl that was perched on one of the bookshelves, whom most people tended to miss for some reason or other.

"Welcome young Thamior, I take it you know why you are here," Nexal said as he silently praised Thamior on his good observation skills.

"Not a clue, my parents only told me that I had to come here when I turned eighteen."

"Well we can't have you taking the trials without knowing why," the owl said as it woke up startling Thamior.

"You can talk!" Thamior said incredulously.

"Of course Graycloak can talk, what did you expect from an animal that has lived within the forest, the Arcane Forest, his whole life," Nexal said almost surprised that Thamior hadn't been told anything else.

"Ok, I guess I can understand that. But what are these trials," Thamior said looking back to Nexal, "And who are you."

"I am the wizard, Nexal, the one who created this forest. But as I told your parents the gods, except Mystra of course, feared the forests power so I was imprisoned here to watch over it. This way the forests power didn't fall into the wrong hands. So, I am trapped here for all eternity, or until I can find another person that can take my place," Nexal said pausing to think about how he wanted to phrase the next part.

Taking the pause to mean that Nexal was finished Thamior said, "At least it's a nice place to live. But that still doesn't explain why I'm here."

"Well, since this forest was created purely from magical energies it passes some arcane arts or talents that are related to the arcane arts to anyone born within the forest. And you were the first person to whom these abilities have been passed. As I'm sure you know, from your visits to Miet, there is a war raging on between the dragons"

"Of course, that's all any one talks about these days. There's even been sightings of some battles around here," Thamior said sounding truly interested.

"That's because the dragons are mere pawns in the war, there is one being that wishes to control this forest and is using the evil dragons either to take the forest or as a distraction," Nexal said somewhat sadly.

"You mean there's good and evil dragons? And how can someone control a dragon let alone a whole bunch of them?" Thamior questioned.

"Well of course there are good and evil dragons. Sure everyone thinks they're all evil, but that's only because no one ever took the time to talk to any of them. Plus there are many types of dragons that most people don't even know about, or didn't until this war started. And you're right to question how someone can control a dragon, because they have minds of iron and they're will is damn near impossible to break," the wise wizard said.

"This person must be a very powerful being, who is he?" Thamior asked, ever full of questions.

"Well, I only know what the gods were willing to share with me. But they made it quite clear that if this person, or whatever he is, gets control of this forest he will breed an army of spell casters that will rival the chosen of Mystra and the Magister combined. The gods fear that they would not even be able to easily stop such an army without suffering from great loses. And that my friend is why they have asked me to train you in the ways of wizardry so that you might be able to stand against this foe before he reaches his full potential," Nexal said in another lengthy explanation.

"Alright, does that mean that I have to become your apprentice or something, because I learn just fine without a master," Thamior said knowing that the wizard could only scry on things within the forest with that mirror.

"We'll just see about that. You will first have to take the trials, and if you can pass them then no you will not have to be my apprentice. But there are a few things that I would like to teach you and possibly learn from you before you leave from this forest," Nexal said as he thought about finally learning that technique after ten years.

"Fine with me. What kind of trials are these?" inquired Thamior.

"They will be a series of tests to check your ability with the arcane arts, and to overall test your abilities as a wizard," Nexal answered. "And we can begin whenever you want."

"Since I spent the last two days preparing for today I might as well get the first trial over with now," Thamior said and then added, "I can take just one of the trials now and another one tomorrow and so on?"

"Yes, you can take as many trials as you want today and take the rest tomorrow or however many days you want," Nexal said.

"You should know that the trials get increasingly harder as you take more of them," Graycloak said, butting into the conversation for only the second time.

"Ok, then I'll take the first trial now and see how taxing it is on me before I decide whether or not to continue," Thamior said waiting to be instructed as to what to do for the first trial.

"Fair enough. The first trial will test how strong you spells are, and you will receive further instructions when we get to the testing place," Nexal said as he stood up. He walked to the center of the shack and went through a complicated incantation, and when the last syllable was spoken a portal appeared in front of him with a wave of his hand. "The testing place is just through this portal," he added as he stepped through.

Thamior hesitated for a moment before he stepped through the newly appeared portal.

"Welcome, this a controlled environment much like the chamber behind the portrait in your old house, and I can change it with a mere thought. Although it was designed not to react to the thoughts of any but myself," Nexal said as Thamior oriented himself to the new place.

They were standing in a desert and Thamior asked, "How is this desert going to help me show you the strength of my spells?"

"It's not this is where I went the last time I used the portal, it's the Anauroch desert if you're wondering. Give me a second to prepare the setting for the test," Nexal said as a look of contemplation came over his face.

After a few moments the desert gave way to a lush forest with trees that were not short but not tall either, and they decently thick.

"You want to see how strong my fireball spell is right?" Thamior asked drawing the conclusion of trees to be burnt thus showing how strong he was with fire spells.

"Wrong. The first part of this trial is to knock one of the trees over with a wind spell," Nexal said simply as he conjured up a chair and sat down waiting for Thamior to complete the task.

"Knock it down with one wind spell?" Thamior asked.

"If you can, otherwise think of another way. So in a sense you are kind of taking trial one and two at the same time. Trial two tests how well you can use your spells uniquely," Nexal said simply.

"Alright," Thamior said as he thought about how he would tackle this test.

He thought about all the spells he had prepared and the spells that he had on scrolls, singling out the few wind spells. He only prepared two wind spells, since he didn't use them very often, and only had one wind spell on a scroll. One was gust of wind, the other was wind wall, and the one on the scroll was another gust of wind spell. This left little room for error.

Thamior decided to simply test the brut strength of his gust of wind spell, since he had another one to fall back on if this one failed. He used the one from the scroll first just in case he had made a mistake in scribing it.

He took the scroll out and recited the arcane syllables and went through the necessary hand motions. As he said the final syllable with all the strength he could put into his voice he pushed out with both hands, palms facing towards the tree, also using as much strength as he could behind the push.

His timing was perfect. The last syllable of the incantation was spoken exactly at the pinnacle of his push and a gust of wind burst forth and hit the tree.

Of course these trees could not be knocked down by simply throwing some wind at them. Though Thamior's spell did make the tree shake slightly.

'Well, that didn't work too well,' Thamior thought, trying to think of another way to knock down the tree, 'Obviously this approach has to be a bit more complex. Maybe if I combine the two spells…'

Without finishing the thought Thamior looked inside his mind to find his wind wall spell. He went through the necessary castings, but altered the spell a bit. Instead of being surrounded by a wall of wind Thamior shaped the spell so that it was but a small rectangle of wind right in front of him.

Then he started the casting of the other wind wall spell. As the final syllable left his lips and escaped on the wind he pushed his hands out once again.

This time the gust of wind hit the wind wall in front of Thamior but instead of stopping the gust of wind merely took the wind wall with it. Thus, making the gust much stronger.

Nexal smiled to himself as he watched Thamior interesting spell combination. And Graycloak hooted from his perch on Nexal's shoulder.

The wind zipped toward the targeted tree. It hit with a resounding boom, followed quickly by a crack as the tree was split.

The tree was starting to fall, only problem was that it was falling toward Thamior, and he didn't have time to react since he was still trying to catch his breath from his spellcasting.

Nexal saw the tree falling but did nothing.

As the tree was about to hit Thamior Nexal willed it away and it vanished.

"Good, you managed to knock a tree down, very creatively I might add. But you didn't take into account which way the tree was going to fall down," Graycloak said always taking the role of the critic.

"That thought never even crossed my mind," Thamior said truthfully. "What's the next test?"

"Do u want to rest and prepare new spells before the next trial? Once I tell you what the trial is you cannot wait until tomorrow," Nexal chimed in.

"No I'll take one more trial."

"Very well," Nexal replied. He went back into thought and conjured up a mighty storm.

Rain poured down from the heavens and soaked everything in sight except the two mages and the owl. When the storm finally stopped the forest was waterlogged.

"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" Thamior asked truly not understanding what this trial would have him doing.

"Patience my friend. You must now start a forest fire using any of your spells," Nexal said simply as Graycloak gave a hoot that sounded much like laughter.

"Right, a forest fire, shouldn't be too hard," Thamior said as he looked within his mind for one of his three prepared fireball spells.

The spell was cast and sent straight into the forest to hit the closest trees. But the trees were so waterlogged that they did not catch fire and Thamior's spell sizzled to nothingness.

'That explains the rain, but I never would have guessed that it would affect the spell that much. Maybe if I try using it,' Thamior thought, 'There's a first time for everything.'

Thamior picked out another fireball and cast it but let the final syllable of the spell hang on his tongue. And quickly starting the casting of his last fireball spell.

'Yes, I get to see that wonderful technique once again,' Nexal thought to himself still wanting to see that creative spell technique after ten years.

The casting of the second fireball spell was in place; all that remained was to say the final syllable of each spell. 'I hope this works,' Thamior thought as he said the arcane syllable to trigger the first spell.

The fireball headed to the same spot that the other had went, but stopped right before it made contact with the forest. As the ball of fire loomed on the edge of the forest, stopped by Thamior's will, the second fireball was sent right into it.

There was a mighty explosion as the two spells met that shook the very ground of the extra dimensional room the two mages were in.

As the explosion faded and the mingled dust and steam drifted above the trees the two mages could see that the trees still did not catch fire.

"What the hell are these trees made of? Any other forest would have been set ablaze by that, no matter how waterlogged the trees were," Thamior thought aloud.

Nexal's reply was simple and to the point, "Think."

Thamior did just that. He sat down on the dry circle of earth around him, and thought.

'Fire doesn't work, even using my mother's special spell combo. What the hell would set a forest drenched with water on fire? Why the hell would that wizard summon a storm over the forest if not to test my fireball's power? Wait a minute, that was no storm, that was only rain. A storm would have had rain…thunder…and lightning. That's it!' and with that final thought Thamior jumped up.

"Took him long enough," Graycloak whispered into Nexal's ear, "Maybe he's not as smart as we first gave him credit for."

"Relax my old friend. He might be a bit slow but I'm sure he has a few tricks up his sleeve for later."

Thamior, ignorant to the conversation behind him, checked his spells; hoping he prepared the spell he needed. And there it was, he went through the casting of the spell and pointed his fingertips at the tree closest to him.

As the last syllable drifted off his lips a bolt of lightning leaped from his fingertips and tore through the forest. It set every tree that it past ablaze.

As the bolt reached it's limit it faded away, and Thamior turned to Nexal.

"Took awhile but you still figured it out," Graycloak said to Thamior still being the critic.

"Are you going to try the next trial now or tomorrow?" Nexal replied not commenting on Thamior performance.

"Well, that trial took a few more spells then I would have liked," Thamior said undecided as to whether or not he wanted to take the next test now. GRUMBLE. "Guess my stomach decided for me. I think I'll take you up on that offer of a hot meal."

"Very well," Nexal said rather simply as he waved his hand to call the portal.

The portal rose out of the ground and the two mages stepped through back into Nexal's little hut.

"You really should look into some kind of expansion on this 'house' of yours," Thamior told Nexal as the disorientation from teleporting wore off.

"Go scan the forest while I attend to our guest," Nexal said to Graycloak and then turned to respond to Thamior's comment, "Why would I do that when I can just do this."

Thamior was slightly confused by the comment at first the he realized that this was a power wizard right here and the meaning of the statement dawned on him.

He idea was strengthened further when Nexal went to one of the bookshelves and pulled on one of the books. It didn't come off the shelf however; it just swung out as if it was attached to the shelf with a hinge.

With the lever being pulled the bookshelf moved to the side, right through the bookshelf next to it and revealing the rune covered handle less door behind it.

'This is one powerful wizard indeed the door must lead to another extra dimensional pocket,' Thamior thought to himself. "What are the runes for?" he said to Nexal.

"They open the door since there isn't a handle."

Nexal ran his hand over some of the runes and skipping over others, reading each one that his fingers crossed. As he read the last rune the door swung inward revealing, as Thamior thought, another extra dimensional pocket. Only this one was a richly furnished house.

'A powerful wizard indeed,' Thamior thought yet again for what he knew wouldn't be the last time at this rate.

There was so much in the house that Thamior realized that he wouldn't be able to see everything right away. Instead of being lined with bookshelves the walls were covered with all sorts of magical items.

As they walked into the kitchen Nexal waved his hand again, but this time two steaming bowls of stew appeared.

'I think I'm going to like my stay here,' Thamior thought always thinking of something and never thinking of nothing.

"Eat up," Nexal said as he sat down before continuing, "Then I'll show you your room and you can prepare the spells you deem necessary for tomorrow."

"Alrighty then," Thamior said, needing no further encouragement he sat down and eat his stew.

The two ate their food and then Nexal got up and showed Thamior to his room so that he could prepare his spells and rest in peace.

"This is my room?" Thamior asked as he looked over the room. It had nice bed; he hadn't slept in a nice bed for ten years, a desk with a candle for his spell book to sit upon. And dotting the walls were various paintings

"For the time that you spend with me, yes," Nexal said as he took his leave, closing the door behind him.

"I could get used to this place. Maybe I will stick around for awhile."

Thamior sat down at the desk, took his spell book out of one of his many pockets, and opened. He set about preparing spells in place of the ones he already used today, and replacing some of his other spells.

Once he was satisfied with the spells he had he laid down on the bed. It had been so long since he last slept in a real bed that he was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

OoOoOoOo

"Rise and shine you lazy bum," Nexal said as he opened the door to Thamior's room finding still sleeping.

"It's too early."

"Too bad, we have to get an early start if you're going to finish this trial and perhaps the next today."

"What is the next trial anyway?"

"It's a maze, so to speak. Really all you have to do is get the item at the end, it's not actually a maze," Nexal said as Thamior jumped out of bed fully awake and ready to start.

* * *

Well there you have it, chapter 3 is finally up and done. I'll try harder to get the next chapter up sooner but I can't make any guarentees. Sorry for the clifhanger but it seemed like the best spot to end the chapter.


	4. The End of the Trials

Disclaimer: this is the last time i'm putting up a disclaimer, i think four times is more than enough times to say that i don't own dungeons & dragons or the world of Faerun, only the characters and some new places that i made up.

Sephirothxx - I'm glad you liked the spellcasting, it's one of my favorite things to describe. if you like graycloak, as do i, then i might make him play a more important role later on.

Valmoth Galvador - Thanks for pointing that out, i forgot that i made reference to it faerun in chapter one.

Anbu713 - The rouge doesn't come in for a little while yet and he's only going to be a rouge, but in my next fic i'll make the rouge a rouge/monk.

And now on to Chapter 4.

* * *

Chapter 4

The End of the Trials

"Is this where the trial takes place?" Thamior asked as he, Nexal, and Graycloak stepped through the portal to find a lake and pretty much nothing else. They were on a plain that seemed to stretch forever without so much as a single tree or rock dotting the horizon.

"Yep, this is the place," Nexal replied as Graycloak made a sound that sounded a lot like laughter. "I'll meet you at the end after you've gotten the item."

"Ok," but before Thamior could finish the simple word Nexal and Graycloak had already vanished. "Well, this should be rather interesting."

Thamior laid his quarterstaff down on the ground and sat down next to it to think about what he would do next.

OoOoOoOo

"Do you think he'll actually figure this one out?" Graycloak asked when they were back in Nexal's little shack.

"It's really not that difficult to figure out, it's just a matter of how many spells will he waste on this one before he figures it out."

OoOoOoOo

'Well, it doesn't look like I have to search this plain for the item so that only leaves the lake. It's a damn good thing I decided to prepare this spell just incase.' And with this thought Thamior fell right into spellcasting.

After some wild hand motions and the mutterings of the unintelligible arcane syllables the spell was complete. Though to any onlooker it appeared that the spell had no effect, but boy were they wrong.

With the spell now complete Thamior jumped right into the lake, and quickly found out that the water was a lot colder than he expected. But the cold water did not stop him from continuing; he was determined to get whatever item was at the end of this 'maze.' The next thing Thamior noticed was that the waters were very dark.

He activated the ring that allowed him to see in the dark, but it only made the water seem blurry. So he quickly went back to spellcasting, this time though the effect was obvious. When the spell was complete the tip of his quarterstaff was glowing brightly with an inner light that illuminated everything in front of the young mage.

With a source of light and the ability to breath underwater Thamior started swimming into the depths of the lake. The bottom of the lake seemed to be an unnaturally long distance away.

Thamior took to looking all around him once he realized that the bottom of the lake was so far away, hoping that his spell didn't wear off before he found wherever it was that he needed to go. And it's a good thing that he was too.

After a while of swimming down Thamior noticed that the shadows were different off to his left. So he changed the direction he was swimming in and headed to his left instead of going straight down. 'This must be it. It's the only damn cave I've seen yet,' he thought as he headed into the little cave. Still submerged in water Thamior began to wonder just how long he'd been swimming. 'I sure hope it hasn't been as long as it feels like or I'm going to end up drowning in this godforsaken cave.'

He'd been swimming along the cave for what felt like five minutes, but you can't exactly tell time underwater so it could have been more or less. But at least the water level in the cave seemed to be decreasing to the point where Thamior would be able to breath without the help of his spell. Speaking of which, Thamior could feel a familiar tingle going through his body that he knew very well. 'This could be bad. If I don't find an air pocket soon I'm gonna be up shit's creek without a paddle,' Thamior thought laughing to himself at well the joke fit his situation, then adding to it so it fit even better, 'Or a boat.'

The water level was decreasing fast now, but so was Thamior's water breathing spell. This left him in a rather bad situation. A magical surge went straight through Thamior's body, the very same feeling he got whenever he cast a spell on himself. Only this time it meant that the spell's effect was gone.

Thamior held his breath, and prayed that the water would decrease faster. He wasn't used to holding his breath underwater for very long so he knew that he didn't have much time. His feet were pounding up and down in the water propelling him faster. Thamior held his staff up as high as he could so that he could see farther down the cave tunnel.

His lungs were burning for more oxygen and he could feel his heart beat in his ears.

And then he saw it, the tunnel opened up into a much larger room. Thamior only hoped that the cavern was not submerged in water as well. He tucked his quarterstaff into his belt so that he could use his arms to aid his feet.

The cavern was only another three feet.

Two feet.

One foot.

Thamior was beginning to feel light headed now as he angled his body so that he was swimming upward. With a loud splash that echoed throughout the cavern Thamior broke the surface of the water. Luckily the water level was the same height as the water level in the cave tunnel.

Thamior's vision was becoming blurry and his legs were too tired to keep him afloat. Luckily the intense training Thamior had done to sharpen his mind kept his brain functioning in the brief seconds before he blacked out. With his remaining time he took his quarterstaff from his belt and used it to keep his head above the water.

OoOoOoOo

"Master, we have yet to find the boy," a fully-grown man stammered through shaking fits. The man was looking at a throne made of bones topped off by a small dragon skull at the top giving it a rather eerie look. But that wasn't what had shaken the man so thoroughly; it was in fact the man sitting in the throne. He was masked by shadows that should not have been there.

When no reply came the man seemed to clam a bit as he backed away a few steps.

"DO NOT MOVE!" bellowed the figure in shadows as he rose from his throne. The shadows still clung to his body as he walked forward towards the man, who was shaking so bad you would think he was having a fit of random spasms.

The figure, which looked to be the size of a human, was right in front of the cowering man it stopped. The unnatural shadows still clinging to it.

After a dramatic pause the figure dropped the shadow, revealing itself to the frightened man.

The man let out a scream at the sight of his master and fell to his knees.

The man's master was definitely not human. It was a bipedal tiger dressed in expensive black robes. But that was not the most disturbing part about this creature. The fact that its palms were where the backs of a human's hand would be was the most nerving thing about this creature; this was the thing that frightened most people.

"M-m-m-master, please, it's not my fault. I just deliver the message," the man stammered.

"I don't care what you do! It's been ten years and Commander Blare still hasn't found this damn kid. Not to mention the fact that I gave him command of two hundred soldiers and five of my personal apprentices. Tell your commander that if he doesn't find this kid soon I'm going to turn him into a new dummy for my apprentices to practice their spells on," the strange creature, a rakashasa, screamed to the man as he held out his hand. After a moment the hilt of a long, jagged, pitch-black sword was resting in his hand. "If you're not gone in half a second then you'll be delivering the message without a hand!"

The man stammered out an unintelligible syllable to activate the ring he was given to transport messages faster. And in the blink of an eye he was gone, lucky enough to escape with both of his hands.

"Why can't I find good help these days? It looks like I'm gonna have to find some new apprentices, since my old ones won't be coming back anytime soon," the rakashasa said under his breath as he walked down a hallway.

"Good morn…"

"I guess I need a new servant too."

OoOoOoOo

Thamior blinked into awareness after having been unconscious for nearly two hours. He took a deep breath to test his lung. 'Owww, that's gonna hurt for a while yet,' he said when the pain spread through his lungs. 'But at least I can breathe again.'

It took a minute for his vision to return to normal from the blurriness that remained. But when his vision was back Thamior looked around the cave, taking in his new surroundings.

He was in a room with a high-vaulted ceiling that was too high for him to see the top. And the water was still there and as deep as before. The thing that caught and held Thamior's attention was the little beach on the right side of the cavern.

The light spell on Thamior's quarterstaff had long ago expired, yet he could clearly see the beach and the tunnel behind it. There was a light emanating from the tunnel.

'Looks like that's the only way to go,' Thamior thought as he swam for the beach, 'Pretty lame maze if you ask me, feels like I'm being herded like a freakin' sheep.'

He reached the beach and was finally out of the water. It was now that Thamior realized just how cold the water really was.

He was shivering uncontrollably and his teeth were chattering. But he had no way of warming his body so he just walked to the mouth of the tunnel. Once at the mouth he stopped and decided not to take any chances so he cast a detect magic spell on the mouth of the tunnel.

And sure enough the tunnel entrance was giving off the bright blue hue that signified the detection of magic.

Thamior sat down and studied the area. After a brief second he came to the obvious conclusion that whatever was there had an invisibility spell cast over it. But was under the invisibility spell was the real question.

As he studied the area more information about it came to him through his detect magic spell. And there were two different auras, one for the already concluded invisibility spell and another for whatever the other spell was.

'How am I going to find out what this damn spell is,' Thamior thought as he looked around the beach area. His gaze swept the entire area and he came up with nothing, but then something made him look again and his gaze lingered on a piece of wood sitting on the beach. 'Hmmm, a piece of wood should solve this problem rather well.'

Thamior went to retrieve the piece of wood and snapped it on his knee a few times to break it into four smaller pieces. He then went back to the area still radiating a blue hue.

He tossed one of the pieces of wood through the area. As the wood passed through the area a wall of flames burst up from the ground and rose all the way to the ceiling.

"At least I'm nice and warm now, and my clothes are dry as well. I guess I'll have to thank who ever put this spell here," Thamior said sarcastically and then sat back down. 'Now the only problem is getting past it. There's no chance of going above it, but it didn't look that wide. So if I can keep it down for a second I should be able to cross it. Or if I can get a cold enough attack maybe it will counter a small area of the effect for a short period of time.'

As a light went off in his head Thamior went right into casting a spell. After the spell was complete Thamior was inside of a red bubble, one that would slightly, but not completely, protect him from fire. Then he started to cast another spell but didn't finish it, just let it hang there with only one syllable left. Then he picked up two more pieces of wood to test his newly formed theory.

OoOoOoOo

"What on earth is that kid planning," Graycloak said as he and Nexal sat watching Thamior via Nexal's scrying mirror.

"Who knows at this point, he seems to be full of unexpected tricks. Looks pretty in depth though," came Nexal's simple reply as he studied the mirror intently. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

OoOoOoOo

With a piece of wood in each hand Thamior positioned himself in front of the spot where the wall of fire shot up.

Thamior threw each piece of wood in quick succession, then immediately shouted the final word of his spell as he charged the wall of fire that had not gone back up to burn the second piece of wood.

With the spell complete his hands had turned the bluish color of ice. As he neared the wall it reared back to life. Thamior stuck his hands out and the icy coldness countered the fire from the wall leaving a small doorway for him to pass through. But the door was not big enough for his entire body. But that was where the red bubble came in; it would give him some protection but would not be able to last very long.

So Thamior continued his charge through the miniature door. The heat from the fire all around him caused the bubble to glimmer and seem to come to life, but it did not falter. Yet.

The wall turned out to be a bit wider than Thamior had expected, not much but enough to cause some problems. As Thamior was about to exit the other side of the wall it started to come back down. Now the bubble really seemed to come to life as fire rolled over it. The protection spell lasted right up to the end of the wall. As Thamior was about to burst out the other side of the wall the bubble disappeared, but there was nothing Thamior could do about it so he just kept on running.

Since he was so close to the end not much damage was cause by the fire but his clothes were singed and quarterstaff and turned to ashes. But everything else had survived.

Thamior sat down to catch his breath and to examine the new area that he found himself in.

The tunnel continued on for a few yards and then opened up into another large cavern. And from this cavern came the glow of the light that Thamior had noticed back in the water. From his vantage point in the tunnel Thamior could also see a pedestal sitting in the center of the cavern, which was where the light was coming from.

He decided that since he didn't have his weapon anymore he should take a moment to prepare himself for whatever might be in that cavern. So he started right into spellcasting. As he finished the spell his body was outlined in a bright blue color that disappeared after a moment, but the spell was still in effect. Then he started another spell, his personal favorite. But didn't finish it, just left the final syllable like he had before so that he could use it quickly. After Thamior felt that he was ready he started walking toward the cavern.

Once in the cavern Thamior didn't get the chance to look around and take in his new surroundings, since something flew out of the shadows and landed on the ground. From where the object landed arose a mighty minotaur with a huge axe in hand. The axe's head was huge but the handle was small, which limited the minotaur's reach.

At the sight of the seven-foot tall creature Thamior almost forgot about his spell. But when the minotaur let out a feral roar that shook the cavern Thamior remembered it. The creature was about to charge, it's favorite opening move, when Thamior uttered that final syllable of his favorite spell.

The minotaur was in full charge as the spell was activated and a lightning bolt jumped from Thamior's fingertips to it. As their two favorite attacks's clashed the minotaur's charge was halted and Thamior started another spell before the minotaur could recover. Smoke was rising from the minotaur's singed fur when it finally recovered and continued its charge as though it had never stopped.

Thamior was still in the middle of spellcasting as the minotaur drew closer. The spell was almost complete but the minotaur would reach Thamior before he could finish it.

The minotaur lowered it's head and caught Thamior between it's horns. It then flipped it's head back and Thamior was sent sailing through the air and into the wall. Thamior slumped to the floor, but through some miracle he had kept his concentration on his spell and was still moving his hands and uttering different syllables.

The minotaur was slightly confused by the fact that Thamior was still alive let alone still casting his spell. It started another charge, only this time it rose it's axe in the air so it could cleave Thamior in half.

But Thamior had other plans. He shouted the final syllable and the spell was complete. The minotaur halted it's charge and readied itself for the spell. From Thamior's outstretched hand three blue bolts of pure magical energy darted toward the minotaur.

The minotaur tried to cut one of the bolts in half but missed, and the three bolts slammed into it's head killing it almost instantly. Instead of falling to the ground with a thud the minotaur simply turned into wisps of smoke and disappeared, leaving behind the object on the ground.

Now the fore of the minotaur's attack was seeping through Thamior and the pain was taking affect. He had to sit there for a few minutes to recover from it, and when he rose the pain was still present. Thamior went over to the object on the ground and picked it up. It was nothing more than a card with a picture of a minotaur on it, but the image was fading.

"Must be a summoning device," Thamior said aloud.

"That it was," a small voice said from up in the air somewhere, "That card was one of the cards from something called the deck of illusions."

"Who are you, and what is the deck of illusions?"

"Well, I'm Dimble the pixie. And the deck of illusions is a deck of cards that can summon certain creatures. And when you throw a card to the ground the creature on the card is summoned to fight for you, but once the creature is killed that card cannot be used again."

"I guess the next question is why the hell did you summon that minotaur and have it try to kill me?"

"Well, that's my job to protect this item from everyone except the one that can beat me. But since I'm not much of a fighter I made this deck of illusions to summon creatures to fight for me. And then I'm supposed to give the person who beats me the item over there on the pedestal, so go on and take it," the pixie said has he motioned toward the pedestal.

Thamior walked up to it and took what was on the pedestal, a book. "What am I supposed to do with this book, it's empty," Thamior said as he flipped through the pages.

"Well, that I do not know. I was only supposed to guard the damn thing. But, since you managed to beat my minotaur, and you kept your spell going after that attack, I guess I'll give you my deck of illusion. The only card that was used was that minotaur so it's almost a complete deck."

"What are you going to use to protect you then," Thamior asked, as the question was finished there was a bright light to the side and a portal appeared. Out of the portal stepped Nexal with Graycloak on his usual perch on Nexal's shoulder.

"Well, it looks like my job is complete, so I wont need anything to guard me anymore," Dimble said.

"That's right. You are free to go wherever you like Dimble. And I thank you for helping me with this task," Nexal said as the effects of teleporting wore off.

"Well, I'm glad I could help, I guess. I'd like to go home now so I'll just leave," Dimble said as he flew off.

"Looks like you managed to pass yet another test," Graycloak said from Nexal's shoulder.

"What does this book do anyway?" Thamior asked looking at the book again.

"I'll tell you when we get back to my house," Nexal said as he led the way through the portal that led back to his house.

Thamior followed Nexal through the portal, and when the disorienting affects of teleporting took hold Thamior was not surprised for he was getting used to it now. He waited for the effects to wear off and then asked again, "What does this book do?"

"It's a special spell book. Any spell in it can be brought to mind without having to spend time every night memorizing spells. The book is permanently linked to your mind and it's pages can be accessed from your mind at anytime. The only downfall is that it can't hold very many spells so you had better choose wisely. And make sure to save some space for future spells that you might learn," Nexal said matter-of-factly.

"Sounds good to me. Are there any more trials or was that it?"

"That was the last official trial, but there is one more thing that I would enjoy very much," Nexal said as his eyes seemed to light up.

"And what would that be?"

"A game of chess," Nexal said with a mischievous smile coming to his face.

"That doesn't sound too bad. Let's go," Thamior said simply.

"Do you have and summon monster spells prepared?"

"Yea, plus I've got the deck of illusions too," Thamior said looking through the cards.

"Only spells can be used, no magic items," Nexal said bursting Thamior's bubble before it could grow any bigger. "What level of summon monster spells can you cast?"

"Up to level three."

"Alright, we'll restrict the game to level three monsters and below. Follow me to the board," Nexal said as he walked outside of his little shack.

They walked through the forest for a few minutes until they came to a clearing that was big enough for the game board. Once they found the clearing Nexal put a small mat on the ground. On the mat was a five-by five square grid. After the mat was on the ground Nexal cast a spell and the mat grew in size until it covered nearly the entire clearing.

"How does four summoning rounds sound to you?" Nexal asked as he moved to one side and motioned for Thamior to move to the opposite side.

"Sounds fine to me."

"We'll have one round for each monster level and the last round will be for an extra level one monster. And we will start with level three monsters and work backwards. You can start," Nexal said and then waited for Thamior to summon his first monster.

Thamior went into spellcasting and after he was finished there was a large ape standing in the square directly in front of him. "You're turn," he said to Nexal once he finished.

Nexal cast his spell and there was a hippogriff standing in front of him with its wings folded against its body.

The process continued until they each had four of the five squares in front of them occupied by some kind of creature. On Thamior's side of the board stood the ape, wolf, dire rat, and hawk. While on Nexal's side of the board stood the hippogriff, scorpion, owl, and small viper.

"Make your move," Nexal said as he thought of possible strategies.

"Very well," Thamior said as he ordered his hawk two squares closer to Nexal's viper.

Next Nexal moved his hippogriff in toward Thamior's ape.

They continued moving their creatures and setting them up for the battle that was to come, but neither wizard attacked until each one of their monsters was where they wanted it.

And then the first attack round started. Thamior's hawk attacked and killed Nexal's viper. Next, the owl under Nexal's command killed the dire rat, and in retaliation Thamior had his wolf jump up and bite down on the owl after it killed the rat. The wizards didn't have their remaining creatures attack so they could each regroup.

So after the first attack round Thamior was winning with three monsters to Nexal's two. But Nexal stayed calm as he thought of a new plan.

Thamior was still sending his creatures where he wanted them, but before he could finish Nexal went back on the offensive and had his scorpion attack Thamior's wolf. The scorpion's stinger hit the wolf under its chin and the poison spread throughout its body killing within the next round. Nexal smiled to himself as he evened the score, and came up with the perfect strategy to finish the game.

Nexal put his hippogriff and his scorpion in adjacent squares and waited for Thamior to make his move. After some thought Thamior sent his agile hawk in to take care of that deadly scorpion.

The hawk flew in as Nexal had predicted and when it was about to grab his scorpion in its talons he ordered his hippogriff to intercept the attack. The hippogriff's mouth closed on the hawk before it could react to the sudden attack.

Thamior winced at the loss of his hawk, while Nexal smiled at having the lead for the first time in the game. At least Thamior still had his strongest monster left, his ape. So he ordered it to stay where it was and wait to see what happened next.

Nexal was surprised that his strategy was working exactly as he planned it to. He was expecting the unpredictable nature of Thamior to make something go wrong, but it didn't. So he ordered his hippogriff to attack form the air and kept his scorpion behind it where he hoped Thamior would forget about it.

And he did. Thamior ordered his ape to jump on the hippogriff's back and snap it's neck. The ape completed the task and landed in the square the hippogriff had previously occupied; with it's back to the forgotten scorpion.

"Attack!" Nexal shouted as his scorpion launched itself onto the apes back.

"No! Throw it off before it can sting you!" Thamior ordered his ape, but it was too late.

As the ape reached back to grab the scorpion it's stinger bit into his back, and his arms, numbed with the poison, fell to his side. The scorpion jumped off the ape's back and let its poison do all the work. Within a few more seconds the poison had complete control over the ape and it slumped to the ground and turned to wisps of smoke as it died.

Nexal dismissed his scorpion before saying, "Good game, best I've had in a while. Especially since I have to play against myself or the animals."

"It was rather fun, even though I lost," Thamior said as Nexal shrank the mat back to it's original size.

"Well, let's get back to my house and get some rest. Tomorrow you have a decision to make, whether you want to stay and learn some of what I have to teach you, or start you mission right away." Nexal said as he started back through the forest. "Sleep on it, don't answer now,' he added when Thamior started to talk.

* * *

there you have it, chapter 4. i hope you liked the game of conjurers' chess, cause i liked writing it. please remember to review. 


	5. Important Decisions

A/N: Sorry to the couple of people that actually read this fic for taking so long to get this chapter up. I just lost all motivation to wirte it at all, but for some reason got some of it back and managed to finally finish this chapter. I'm not making any promises but I'm definitely going to try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can.

Sephirothxx - thank you for continuing to review, and once again i aplogize for taking so long. and i'm glad that you liked the game of chess and the fight with the minatour. there should be some more fight scenes in this chapter that i hope you enjoy.

Anbu713 - sorry about the long wait, but here it is. there are definitely more fights in here, strictly magical, so you should like them quite a bit. and there will, without a doubt, be some new characters in the next chapter. glad you liked the spellbook and the rakasha, which will be starting to play a bigger and bigger role in the coming chapters.

After the long wait this chapter is up and ready to be read and reviewed, so without further ado enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 5

Important Decisions

It was mid morning on the day after the game of conjurer's chess, and Thamior had just woken up to find Nexal and Graycloak sitting at the table looking at a book.

"Sleep long enough?" Graycloak asked.

"Nope," Thamior said sarcastically.

"Well, have you decided what you're going to do?" Nexal asked simply not taking his eyes off of the book.

"Yes, but I have a question first. If I stay and learn more of the arcane arts from you wont many people die from this 'dragon' war?"

"It is possible that some may in fact die, but the war has not really started yet. The 'puppeteer' behind all of this has not unleashed the true war upon this world. It is only just starting." Nexal said finally looking up from his book.

"If the war hasn't really started in full yet then I think that I should stay here and learn what I can so I'm ready to face whatever this being will throw my way," Thamior said as he sat down next to Nexal and added, "What's this book for?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you were going to stay so I started to prepare in case you left today. This book details the way to a place where there is a map that will take you to the homeland of the good, or metallic, dragons of the world. It is there you will receive orders on what to do next. But since you aren't leaving today we don't have to worry about it yet."

"One question before we start training. If the good dragons are known as metallic dragons what are the evil dragons known as?"

Before Nexal could answer Graycloak cut in, "They are known as chromatic dragons, not that anyone but the scholars really care about the differences. To most people all dragons are exactly the same."

"Oh. Well then, when do we start training?" Thamior asked always ready to learn something new, especially where spellcasting was concerned.

"Whenever you're ready," Nexal said as he closed the book that lead to the map. "Oh, there is one thing I would like to ask you. In return for teaching you what I can I wish to learn your mother's double spell technique."

"No problem, I'm sure my mother would have wanted other people to know of the technique she spent years creating. I have the records my mother kept on it and I can lend you the tome whenever you want."

"Great. Now we can begin your training whenever you want."

"Let's start right away, what's first?" Thamior asked genuinely interested.

"You combine your spells creatively and effectively but it takes you too long to figure out how you want to combine those spells. And in the process you waste spells that could prove the difference between life and death in many situations. So, I think that we need to focus and train your mind to notice to small details in every situation, and to think things through before you waste a spell."

"Alright, but how exactly are we going to do that?"

"First, you will meditate every morning after studying your spell book the night before. And make sure you prepare a wide variety of spells to cover any situation. Next, you will go through a series of obstacle courses I have designed to sharpen the mind to the little things. Once you complete all of the obstacle courses I will begin to teach you as many new spells as I can. And you should know that the longer it takes you to complete all of the obstacles the less time there will be to learn new spells since you can stay no longer than a year."

"Why couldn't I stay longer if the war doesn't get bad by then?" Thamior asked slightly disappointed.

"Well, there are others who have things to teach you, it's not just myself. Now if you have no more questions we should start the first obstacle course as soon as we can."

OoOoOoOo

A group of people were lined up just outside of Karak's throne room, waiting to find out if they would be selected as his new apprentices. Each person in the room had been hand selected, all of them picked based on their evil deeds and skill in the use of the Weave. Then, they had each performed a magical display in front of Karak himself.

Now Karak was in his throne room deciding whom he should pick to replace his apprentices since he sent his last remaining ones to help Commander Blare find this kid. None of these people had really wowed him so he decided to pick based on something other than skill. He picked people that used spells that he personally liked. And that meant that none of them had used a fireball or a lightning bolt spell, since that wasn't very original and there wasn't a wizard in all of Faerûn that didn't use them too often.

He called everyone into the room.

"I have chosen the five people that will become my new apprentices. If you are still breathing when I get up then you know that you have been chosen." With this statement some people tried to scramble back out the door only to find it locked.

"What the hell is this? When I signed up to try out no one said that I would die if I failed," one rather brave, or stupid, man shouted.

"This is a lesson to show the five that are chosen that I do not tolerate failure," Karak said as he waved his hand and one person dropped to the ground dead. The process continued as one by one the group was slowly whittled down to five. "You are the lucky five. My servant here will show you to your rooms and then someone will arrive there to show you around the complex. Training starts tomorrow," Karak said as he waved his hand in dismissal, and then he shouted to another servant, "Clear these bodies away and do it quickly!"

As the new apprentices were led out of the room more servants appeared on the scene and hurried to clear the bodies of the failed test takers. "Each of you has a room prepared for you in the east wing, which is the wing that has been dubbed the magic academy. You will have a few minutes to unpack your things before another servant will knock on your door and show you around the castle," the servant leading the small group said as they reached the east wing and the apprentice rooms.

OoOoOoOo

"Whew, that was one hard ass obstacle course," Thamior said as he finished the last obstacle course that Nexal had prepared to get Thamior to notice things better. "I thought I was going to be stuck in that room forever."

"So you've finally finished all of them," Graycloak said as he perched himself on Nexal's shoulder having just completed his usual scout of the forest. "Bad news Nexal. The wizards and their soldiers have become bolder. They are starting to venture into the forest, and it's only a matter of time before they start moving further in."

"Thank you for the report Graycloak. You should go and get some rest for the rest of the day," Nexal replied, and the owl took off. "These people are getting too bold, we should do something to reimburse the fear of the forest."

"And what exactly did you have in mind?" Thamior asked.

"We attack tonight, giving you ample time to replenish your spells. And we only stay so long, we are not trying to kill every last one of them. Prepare what spells you deem necessary, but keep the mission in mind."

"Very well," Thamior said as Nexal cast a spell to teleport the two of them back to his house to prepare for the attack.

OoOoOoOo

Thamior walked out of his room in Nexal's house after having spent the time to study his spell book and prepare his spells. He walked into the kitchen area and found Nexal sitting at the table waiting for him. "I'm ready when you are," he said to his mentor.

"Good. We leave in just a few minutes, but first I have a something that I wish to lend to you," Nexal said as he got up and walked to one of the many case that rested on the wall. He reached inside and pulled out two identical rings. "Here, this one is for you," Nexal said handing one of the rings to Thamior while putting the other onto his own finger, "When activated the ring will teleport you back here. And it is activated simply by willing it to active, no command word needed."

Thamior slipped the ring onto his other hand, the one without his ring of darkvision, while Nexal moved over to a closet and pulled out a new quarterstaff. He handed the weapon to Thamior as he said, "Since your last weapon was burned I figured you might like a new one, this one is for you to keep."

"Thank you, a new weapon would be very useful should things take a turn for the worse. Does it have any magical properties?" Thamior asked curious what the powerful wizard might have done to enhance the weapon.

"Sadly I have not had the time to enchant it with anything yet. Besides I think you will be getting a much greater weapon in due time."

"From who?"

"Now is not the time, we are needed elsewhere at the moment," Nexal said as he grabbed his own staff, one that Thamior often wondered about the hidden powers it might hold. And the two of them headed out into the dark forest.

Thamior willed his ring to activate so he could clearly see all that was happening. Nexal on the other hand, could see just fine with the little light emanating from the moon and stars since he was an elf. So they set off toward the fringes of the forest to prepare their attack on the invaders.

After an hour or so of walking in the darkness of the forest the two mages finally came to the outskirts of the enemy encampment.

"Looks like there's quite a few of them. What's the plan Nexal," Thamior whispered to the older mage from their hiding place in the bushes.

"What do you think we should do?" Nexal countered, then when Thamior gave him a quizzical look added, "It's part of your training, military tactics."

"Well, the best course of action would probably be to take out the wizards first. They pose the greatest threat."

"Very good," Nexal said taking a small mirror out of one of his many pockets. As Nexal looked into the mirror an image started to form. "Apparently these wizards are rather cocky. They didn't even set up wards against scrying." The image was clear now and Thamior could see the group of five wizards sitting down to eat. "Would you care to do the honors," Thamior nodded, "make sure you check for wards first."

Thamior pulled his most recently made wand out of his belt and cast a spell from it. As the spell was cast a blue aura surrounded the tent that the wizards sat in. "It appears only to have a simple alarm spell cast on it," Thamior said after studying the tent for a few minutes.

"Very well, you may continue as you see fit," Nexal said content to keep what he knew to himself to see how Thamior handles the situation.

Thamior thought about what spell to use for a moment, then decided to use one of his newest and most advanced spells. He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a piece of clear crystal in the shape of a sphere.

"I didn't know you could cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere," Nexal said recognizing the spell simply from the component needed to cast it.

"I just learned it a few days ago."

"How, you've been doing the obstacles every day?"

"I borrowed some of the books from your collection and I've been studying them before I go to bed," Thamior said as he starting casting the spell, and signaling that that was the end of the short exchange unless he lose his concentration and waste the powerful spell.

Nexal took the sign and didn't continue the conversation. Instead he sat back and watched Thamior go through the rather long casting of the spell. He marveled at how flawlessly Thamior went through the difficult incantation. And knew that it was the gift of the arcane forest to be able to read a spell and learn it perfectly in just a couple of days of short work.

Thamior took a deep breathe after muttering the final word of the long incantation. As the word was spoken the piece of crystal in Thamior's hand disappeared and was replaced by a globe of shimmering force that surrounded the entire tent below the two mages.

"Well, that seemed to work rather well," Thamior said admiring how well he cast the spell for the first time.

"Don't be so sure," Nexal said bursting Thamior's bubble.

"And why's that. I cast the spell perfectly," Thamior said a bit touchy.

"You're right you did cast it perfectly. The problem was in your dispel magic spell. These wizards are strong enough to hide some of the wards that were cast on the tent. Watch," Nexal said as he turned back to the tent.

Thamior too looked back at the tent and found that Nexal was right. The sphere he cast around the tent was starting to fade.

"It was definitely a good plan, but one you were not yet strong enough to execute. And now that they know we are here it's time for a plan B, what d'you have in mind."

"Why am I still calling the shots? I just screwed up and gave away our position," Thamior asked slightly confused.

"Being in charge isn't just about doing everything right. But now isn't the time to talk about leadership, so what's the new plan?" Nexal asked looking directly at Thamior.

OoOoOoOo

Down below where the mages where hidden by the bushes the five wizards had run out of their tent as the sphere around it had disappeared. And were now frantically scanning the area for the attackers, with both eyes and spells. While they looked everywhere for the hidden attackers the commander Blare and his troops just watched their antics until one of the wizards shouted, "What do you think you're doing set up a perimeter."

"This seems to be an affair between magic users, so if it's all the same to you we'd much rather stay out of it. I don't even know what we're doing here anymore, it's obvious that we'll never find that kid we're looking for," commander Blare said trying to keep his troops from unneeded harm.

OoOoOoOo

As the leaders continued to argue down below the forest's two protectors formed their next plan.

"It's obvious that the troops don't even want to be here so we should use that to our advantage and focus solely on the wizards," Nexal offered as Thamior continued to plan their next move.

"What we need is some way to slow them and their spellcasting down," Thamior said thinking to himself.

"I have a web spell prepared that I can cast," Nexal said taking on the role of subordinate for the time being.

"Perfect, you'll cast a web spell on them and then I'll hit them with a barrage of magic missiles. After that it'll turn into an all out wizards duel, so once you recover from casting your web spell do whatever you see fit. Oh, and before we start the battle we should cast some protective magic on ourselves," Thamior said as he picked a spell that would protect him from spells below fourth level, a spell that he didn't even prepare but one that he had written in the book that he got from Nexal. Casting this spell would have replaced one of the other fourth level spells he had prepared except that he had cast the only fourth level spell that he should have been able to cast at his current strength. But this fact didn't register in Thamior's mind at the moment for it was focused solely on the task at hand.

Nexal cast the same spell on himself and then cast a spell on each of them that would protect them from some of the damage dealt by most types of elemental spells. With their protection spells out of the way Nexal then started to cast the web spell.

While Nexal was casting the web spell Thamior started his spell so that they could time it just right. Nexal finished his spell first, since Thamior was using his mother's double spell technique, but didn't say the triggering word so that Thamior could catch up. When all that was left of both spells was their triggering word the two mages nodded to each other.

Nexal's spell was first so, he said the word that would cover the area around the five wizards with sticky spider webs. The spell caused the wizards to become covered in the sticky webbing, but with Nexal's complete control over his spells he made sure that only the wizards were covered. Luckily the spell had bound the hands of some of the wizards to their sides.

While the chaos ensued and the wizards that had free hands tried to dispel the webbing Thamior said the words that completed his two magic missile spell. With the two spells complete eight bolts of pure magical energy darted toward the five trapped wizards.

Six of the eight bolts hit the closest wizard squarely in the chest in quick succession, and killing him as soon as the sixth one hit him. The other two bolts went around his dead body and hit the next wizard right in her face.

The wizard that was killed was one of the two that had their hands free. The other was the girl that was wounded by the other two magic missiles, and now with only one wizard to dispel all of the webs surrounding them the process went more slowly.

This gave Thamior and Nexal the time to prepare their next assault. The two wizards once again started casting spells. This time Thamior chose not to go with a double spell so that he could save some time.

Nexal being the more experienced finished his casting before Thamior did. And as Nexal said the final word of the spell an array of colored beams shot from his hand. But as Nexal had neared the end of the spell the wizard with her hands free had finally managed to clear enough of the webbing to free her colleagues' hands so they could cast spells while she finished with the webs.

The wizards with their feet still trapped in the webs each managed to cast a spell, and each spell created a wall that intercepted the beams aimed for their casters. One wizard created a wall a fire, another made a wall of ice, and the last constructed a wall of iron. The walls were cast so they appeared one behind the other, so the wizards would be protected for the longest amount of time possible.

When Nexal cast the spell he altered it so that the beams lined up single file, this way all the beams didn't hit the same target at the same time. The yellow and green beams each hit the wall of fire in quick succession causing all three of the spells to be cancelled. The red and blue beams each hit the wall of ice causing shards of ice to fly in every direction. The violet and indigo beams hit the wall of iron causing tiny pieces of iron to embed themselves in the skin of the nearby soldiers. While the orange, and last, beam passed through the destruction of the walls and hit the already wounded wizard. Upon impact the wizard glowed green as her skin and body was burned away by acid.

With Nexal prismatic spray finished and the remaining wizards going back to clearing the web Thamior decided to complete the spell he held waiting. Upon finishing the spell a fiery bolt appeared in front of him, and as he pointed to one of the wizards the bolt headed straight for him.

The wizard was not expecting another spell to be cast at him so soon so, he was in the middle of dispelling the web. And could not stop the flaming bolt from piercing his heart and igniting his body on fire.

Now that the two wizards were free from the web spell and their position was well known Nexal and Thamior decided it was time to reveal themselves. They walked out of the bushes and faced the two remaining wizards.

"Now that the odds are evened let's make this one on one," Nexal suggested.

"Fine with us," one of the wizards said then leaned over to her companion and whispered, "The young one is the kid we're looking for so make sure you capture him alive."

"If I must," the wizard said before he faced Thamior and said, "Let's get this over with kid."

"You shouldn't call me a kid," Thamior said pulled a second wand from his belt and pointed it at his opponent saying the single word that triggered the spell the wand contained.

With the word said a bolt of dripping acid was shot at the wizard Thamior was squaring off against. The wizard starting moving his hands and muttering arcane syllables trying to get his spell off before he was impaled by the bolt heading straight for him. At the last second he realized that he would not get to finish the spell and was forced to dodge. But he was not fast enough to get out of the way entirely. The bolt grazed his leg and the acid, much less potent than that of the acid from Nexal's prismatic spray, burned away the skin around the wound.

Somehow the wizard had managed to hold onto his spell and continued casting it once he regained his composure. As he finished the spell a sheet of fire erupted from his hand, which was pointed at Thamior. Thamior managed to stay clam and started to cast a retaliatory spell. Toward the end of his spell the sheet of fire engulfed him.

"I said keep him alive!" the other wizard shouted as her shield protected her from yet another spell from Nexal. She started to cast a spell before her shield was torn apart. Upon completion of her spell a small orb appeared in front of her continually growing until it became the size of a small rock. She waved her hand in Nexal's direction with a triumphant grin on her face.

"You young people these days always think you've won before the fight is even over," Nexal said calmly as he waved his staff at the orb heading for him and it suddenly stopped and started heading back the way it came.

Nexal's opponent was too taken aback by this turn of events to do anything before the orb touched her and transferred all of it's cold to her body freezing her instantly.

The sheet of fire was just dissipating when a bolt of lightning shot through the flames and hit Thamior's opponent in the chest and scorching him. With the fire almost gone Thamior could be seen safely inside the bubble that was his protection spell.

"You know we should capture you right now," a voice said as the person it belonged to stepped forward. "But I care more about the lives of my men than my orders from Karak," commander Blare said facing Nexal.

"But if I know Karak he wouldn't just let you live after you had the perfect chance to capture us and yet you came back empty handed," Nexal said to the leading officer.

"That is very true. Karak would skin us all alive if that happened. That's why I'm going to take my troops and take refuge in Cormanthor."

"Very well, you seem to have everything figured out. And you do not seem to pose a threat to us anymore so we shall let you and your men leave. Come Thamior, let us take our leave," Nexal said as he vanished from the spot he was standing in.

Thamior too willed his ring to activate and was also whisked back to Nexal's house. When the disorienting effects of teleporting wore off Thamior found himself in Nexal's kitchen facing Nexal.

"You did very well out there tonight. There is not much more that I can teach you so, it might be better if you start out on your quest before the full year is up. You will have to finish the last obstacle course first, but after that it will be time to leave and find your next instructor," Nexal said.

"And who will that be?" Thamior just couldn't resist the question.

"The great dragons of good, of course," Nexal said as if Thamior should have known it.

"But you were supposed to teach me some new spells," Thamior protested feeling cheated.

"You have already learned some of the spells I intended to teach from the books you borrowed. So I'll let you keep them so you can continue to learn even more of them. We will talk more about the mission in the morning, but for now I think you could use some rest."

OoOoOoOo

"What do you mean commander Blare and his entire troop was wiped out, including my apprentices!" Karak shouted at the sole survivor of the troop, the messenger who used his ring to teleport out when things got ugly.

"I'm sorry sir but I thought it best that I live to tell you instead of staying to fight with the rest of the troop."

"That was a good choice. Do you know why?" Karak said as he held his out.

"N-no s-sir, why?" the messenger said in fear as the pitch-black sword appeared in his master's hand.

"Because now I get to kill you myself!" Karak shouted as he slashed the messenger's neck with the sword's jagged edge. "Get me a new commander, and clean this up!" he shouted to a nearby servant.

OoOoOoOo

Thamior was still in his room packing his things as morning came around. He already put his books into his backpack, and was now putting the wands and scrolls, that he made while training under Nexal, in his backpack as well. He already had his ring of darkvision on and had his deck of illusions in one of his belt pouches. He put his backpack on, grabbed his new staff and the three books that he was going to leave in Nexal's care.

He walked down to the kitchen and put the books on the table in front of Nexal, "Here, these contain my mom's double spell technique."

"Thank you. I have something for you as well. It's the map that will lead you to the map of the dragon's lair," Nexal said handing Thamior a piece of parchment.

"So, it's a map to a map?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I know it's stupid but it's the only way. Besides think of all the extra experience you'll gain. By the way, I think it would be wise if you formed a party to accompany you on your mission."

"Ok, but where am I going to find anyone that will go with me?"

"I would search in Waterdeep, it has plenty of people, and it's a good place to start the mission. I have friends in the wizards guild there, so I should be able to teleport you directly to Waterdeep, no travel needed.'

"Sounds good."

"Let me just contact them real quick," Nexal said as he sent a mental message to one of his friends in Waterdeep's wizards guild via one of his rings. "Alright, they're ready to receive you. Are you ready to start on this mission?"

"Yeah, its now or never I guess," Thamior said as he readied himself for the teleportation to Waterdeep.

"Ok, once you're in Waterdeep you should be able to get a room in the wizards guild. And they have ways of contacting me if you have any questions about anything. The only thing left is to say good luck and good-bye my friend," Nexal said as he started casting the spell that would teleport Thamior to Waterdeep.

"Thank you for everything, and I'll contact you as soon as something arises," Thamior said as Nexal finished the spell and he was whisked off to Waterdeep.

* * *

That's that and i hope you enjoyed it. in the next chapter there will be some new characters introduced and more will become known about how nexal knew karak. PLEASE read and review. Until next time, so long. 


End file.
